<P><B>Winner of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Award for Poetry (2009)</B><BR><B>Winner of the American Book Award (2009)</B></P><P>In 1965, when the poet Jack Spicer died at the age of forty, he left behind a trunkful of papers and manuscripts and a few copies of the seven small books he had seen to press. A West Coast poet, his influence spanned the national literary scene of the 1950s and '60s, though in many ways Spicer's innovative writing ran counter to that of his contemporaries in the New York School and the West Coast Beat movement. Now, more than forty years later, Spicer's voice is more compelling, insistent, and timely than ever. During his short but prolific life, Spicer troubled the concepts of translation, voice, and the act of poetic composition itself. My Vocabulary Did This to Me is a landmark publication of this essential poet's life work, and includes poems that have become increasingly hard to find and many published here for the first time.</P>

JACK SPICER (1925–1965) published books including After Lorca (1957), Billy the Kid (1959), and The Holy Grail (1962). PETER GIZZI is a poet and author of numerous books, including The Outernationale (2007), who lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts. KEVIN KILLIAN is a poet, novelist, critic, and playwright living in San Francisco.

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionAbout This EditionBERKELEY RENAISSANCE (1945– 1950)Berkeley in Time of PlagueA Girl's SongHomosexualityA Portrait of the Artist as a Young LandscapeAn Apocalypse for Three VoicesOne Night StandAn Answer to Jaime de AnguloA Lecture in Practical AestheticsDialogue Between Intellect and PassionA Night in Four Parts (Second Version)Orpheus in HellOrpheus After EurydiceOrpheus' Song to ApolloTroy Poem"We find the body difficult to speak...""They are selling the midnight papers...""Any fool can get into an ocean..."The Scrollwork on the CasketThe Dancing ApeImaginary Elegies (I, II, III)Psychoanalysis: An ElegyMINNESOTA POEMS (1950– 1952)Minneapolis: Indian SummerWatching a TV Boxing Match in OctoberPortrait of an ArtistSonnet for the Beginning of WinterOn Reading Last Year's Love PoemsOrpheus in AthensTrain Song for GaryA Second Train Song for GaryBERKELEY / SAN FRANCISCO (1952– 1955)A Postscript to the Berkeley RenaissanceA Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1955"The window is a sword..."Imaginary Elegies (IV)NEW YORK / BOSTON (1955– 1956)IInd Phase of the MoonIIIrd Phase of the MoonIVth Phase of the Moon•Some Notes on Whitman for Allen JoyceThe Day Five Thousand Fish Died Along the Charles RiverHibernationAfter Morris GravesÉternuementSong for the Great Mother"The city of Boston..."Five Words for Joe Dunn on His Twenty-Second BirthdayBirdland, California"Imagine Lucifer..."The Song of the Bird in the LoinsBabel 3They Murdered You: An Elegy on the Death of Kenneth Rexroth 64A Poem to the Reader of the PoemSong for Bird and MyselfA Poem Without a Single Bird in ItThe Unvert Manifesto and Other Papers Found in the Rare Book Room of the Boston Public Library in the Handwriting of Oliver Charming. By S.SAN FRANCISCO (1956– 1965)Poetry as Magic Workshop QuestionnaireAFTER LORCAADMONITIONSA BOOK OF MUSICSocratesA Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1958BILLY THE KIDFor Steve Jonas Who Is in Jail for Defrauding a Book ClubFIFTEEN FALSE PROPOSITIONS AGAINST GODLETTERS TO JAMES ALEXANDERAPOLLO SENDS SEVEN NURSERY RHYMES TO JAMES ALEXANDERA BIRTHDAY POEM FOR JIM (AND JAMES) ALEXANDERImaginary Elegies (V, VI)"Dignity is a part of a man..."HELEN: A REVISIONTHE HEADS OF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHERLAMENT FOR THE MAKERSA RED WHEELBARROWThree Marxist EssaysTHE HOLY GRAILGOLEMMAP POEMSLANGUAGEBOOK OF MAGAZINE VERSEChronologyNotes to the PoemsBibliographyIndex of TitlesIndex of First Lines